


Growing Up Kane

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-14
Updated: 2007-03-14
Packaged: 2017-10-28 00:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A world where a very young Dinah sees both her parents die, while a visitor sees the child and her potential.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing Up Kane

It wasn't the battle itself that caught the psyop officer's eye.

It wasn't the rare sighting of the Justice Society of America, in costume, a complete team.

It certainly wasn't the fact the man had died so brutally, not after what she had seen.

It was the fierce determination of the child, the little girl with long black hair, to reach the fallen man that made her react. She was close enough, she intervened, snatching the girl up in midstride.

"No, girl!" She had to hold on tight, as the girl's kicks and swinging fists actually had precision, if not strength.

"My daddy!"

"You would only be a distraction!" the woman ground out, and was stunned as the child went still, a corded bundle of knots. She obviously understood the way of a battle, and she could only be seven or so.

The woman moved to push back with the crowd, away from the police cowering behind riot gear, but the girl strained toward the fight, whining. She turned to see what was keeping the child fixated, just as a powerful blow smashed the blonde in the fishnets to the pavement. The girl in her arms keened at that, and buried her face into the woman's neck. A quick look at how close to the man the fallen hero was, and the woman knew this child had just seen both her parents fall in battle. It pushed at the hard edges, calling up traces of maternalism in her soul.

Then she heard the child, and her mind was made up.

"I'll be better, stronger, fight harder," the girl was saying, soft and low.

The woman knew she had a fighter in her arms.

`~`~`~`~`

The JSA did not want to let her go. She pointed out their lifestyle made them ill suited to be guardians.

The boxer pushed hardest; she pointed out that the child had just lost both her parents because of who they were.

After that, it was just a matter of whispers and bribes, and she was on her way back to Germany, carrying a seven-year-old girl back to be big sister to her infant son. Her husband's opinion had never been asked; she was accustomed to him letting her have her say on the household.

She had figured correctly that her husband would not say a word against her choice. He came back from a mission and saw the girl with Grant, and looked at his wife. A quiet conversation in the kitchen gave him the details and he came back to meet her.

From the minute the man he spoke to the child, he was intrigued. That intrigue turned to outright interest as she joined him early one morning while he practiced his fighting forms, trying to learn his limits.

He wound up spending as much time showing her basic judo stances as he did exploring what the serum had done to him, in the wee hours before his wife would be up.

`~`~`~`~`

Addie did enjoy seeing Slade overcoming his disability, watching him take a keen interest in passing their skills on to the girl with fire in her guts and a mean left hook. Dinah's assistance with Grant was invaluable, especially when she got pregnant again when Grant was barely two.

It was Dinah who took care of baby Joey as Addie tried to find her husband, when the man vanished the same week their child came. She was adept at diapers and bottles, having a patient nature when it came to her brothers.

Dinah overheard the argument that ensued when Slade did come home, that he had been finishing one last piece of business from the army. Their voices, hissed and quiet but full of passion for what they each believed, stayed with Dinah in her dreams. She vaguely remembered fights between her real parents, always loud on her mother's part, and resigned on her father's.

The difference bothered her, but she never could tell why.

`~`~`~`~`

At thirteen, Dinah was a fierce fighter already. She had learned every hand to hand trick Slade could teach her, had learned blade play up through his K-Bar, but refused to follow that path, proving to him that her dedication to the pure Art of using her body as a weapon was sincere by catching him off guard with a move that buckled one of his knees.

Addie had to convince her to follow up on the use of guns.

So when the kidnappers came for her little brother, not quite five yet, they faced a vicious hellcat defending him. She took them on with her bare hands, until one got a solid hand on her, throwing her clean across the playground they were on, causing her to crash into a piece of equipment. The pain in her shoulder and head did not deter her from rushing in again, ducking at last minute and getting one of the guns they had yet to pull.

When Addie got to the scene, her daughter was down, her son was missing, and there was one kidnapper nearly dead from her daughter's shot.

`~`~`~`~`

Dinah, despite the mild concussion and the sling holding her arm close from the fractured scapula she had suffered, managed to get to the head of the stairs as Addie came in, carrying Joey, with Slade following in brightly colored armor.

Her face grew very closed, colder than ice, as Addie's hissing accusations made it through her understanding.

Slade had done this. The man she called both father and teacher had caused her to get hurt. Worse, Joey was lying in Addie's arms with bandages around his throat. Slade had caused the family to be injured through their youngest member.

The thirteen year old fighter met her adopted father's eyes one last time, giving him all her hate and contempt in that one glance, before she made her way to Joey's room, to help Addie.

She never even questioned the gunshot, or the subsequent move they made to another home, one that had nothing of Slade Wilson in it.

`~`~`~`~`

A nine-year-old Grant Wilson was likely the most exasperating creature in Dinah Kane's life. It still did not excuse her raising her voice the way she did, in her own mind, after the fact. If she had not, maybe Grant wouldn't have been the one to get hurt.

Addie just told her she was being ridiculous as they tended Grant's bruises and scrapes from where the sonic cry had thrown him into the bookcases.

Dinah took her little brother out that afternoon, treating him to all his favorite things, as she made up for his hurts by spoiling him.

`~`~`~`~`

At seventeen, Dinah went to work for her mother's company.

Two months later, she quit, and Addie did not argue with her. The leader of Searchers had long ago learned that her headstrong daughter was one to walk her own path, and when an information drop had led to a bloodbath in two Italian mob families, Dinah had chosen to find a different way.

She was still very much the child of heroes, even if she did understand that hard measures were sometimes called for.

`~`~`~`~`

Slade had turned down the contract, scoffing at the notion a bunch of kids could be worth his time. Then he got a phone call from Addie, telling him she had lost touch with both Dinah and Grant, after their daughter had told her Grant was acting odd.

The trail led to the Titans, who told them about a man calling himself Ravager. The description of the fight, of the woman that had come at the end in full body armor and a mask made his blood run cold. Slade had glimpsed his daughter over the years, seen how ruthlessly she hunted killers and drug dealers alike. He had no doubt she could handle herself, but with the news of Grant's death fresh in his mind, he turned to tracking her.

Finding Dinah led him right back to the source of that contract he had been offered, and the details that spilled out made Slade angry. Using his son to manipulate him to take on a job he had declined was enough to seal their death warrants. Seeing his daughter's injuries just added a level of pain to the deaths.

And still she would not speak to him, as they left for separate lives again when it was all said and done. He thought bitterly on the fact that at least Addie would have taken the moment to curse him.

`~`~`~`~`

Now that tracking Grant down had drawn Dinah back to the States, she saw just what a mess the land of her birth was and opted to stick around, pursuing her brand of justice. She found the underbellies of cities in America were just as easy for her to slice into as the ones in Europe, where her costume had already become a sight familiar enough to make most goons cower.

But Europe lacked truly flashy heroes, like America did. Dinah found herself in the middle of a fight alongside the old guard, the remaining Justice Society members before it truly registered who they were. For an instant, a seven-year-old girl was screaming for her mother and father in Dinah's mind, before she pushed it all away and kept fighting.

When Wildcat went down under an energy blast, she could not help the instinct to protect; this had been her first family. The sonic cry she let loose all but demolished the power suit their opponent had been fighting in, leaving it in pieces around the man as Sentinel quickly pulled a construct around the culprit.

By the time the JSA had things quiet enough to talk to their mysterious ally in black armor and mask, she was gone.

`~`~`~`~`

It was the Titans who first learned she called herself Black Canary. Robin and Wondergirl both knew the name, exchanging glances after the impressive fighter had left them. Every time the woman showed up, it was usually just after Deathstroke had crossed their paths, leading them into trouble.

Robin knew there had to be a link, having watched the two fighters' styles. He just could not pinpoint it until the day the Black Canary visited after their team had acquired Jericho.

Knowing the woman was Jericho's sister was one more piece in a growing puzzle, for Robin to chew over at night with his Speedy.

`~`~`~`~`

Green Arrow had irritated her, and wound up on his ass after one too many attempts to come on to her. Batman intrigued her, though a few trips through Gotham trailing cases soon broke her of that.

It was Green Lantern that proved stubborn enough to crack the armor she held around herself.

Batman did not question why the woman assisted them from time to time, did not say a word when Green Lantern would gruffly say she would not be there once they had gotten accustomed to it. Their volatile relationship was obvious enough that Batman just opted not to count on her assistance, but use it when it was available.

Then Flash got in the middle of one of their arguments, and after that, the nature of things changed drastically.

`~`~`~`~`

Black Canary was a constant member at the outskirts of their team from the minute Barry Allen found comfort in her arms, following the loss of Iris. When the return of his wife nearly tore him in two, the vigilante merely let go, freeing him to return to the wife he loved, though she still remained at the League's disposal.

Batman felt uneasy as he looked more and more into her history, finding the connections to Deathstroke, to Searchers, and the mysterious habit of her case's culprits winding up dead in jail. It could have been coincidence, though, because she did tend to focus on the criminals that went after children. People who hurt kids had short life spans in prison, statistically.

`~`~`~`~`

Black Canary was none too pleased to be guarding a drug-runner turned informant, but for Barry's sake, in his memory, she had to abide by the rules long since set down by him for her.

The League had needed her, had needed the strength she brought, the enigmatic presence that made so many lesser rogues choose not to face her. She would guard the scumbag, and then let her network get to him in prison, wring out the information she wanted, and, if it turned out necessary, kill him there.

This plan had come to a screeching halt when Deathstroke had arrived on scene, with deadly intentions. He had already taken out her partner, Fire, with an entirely too well placed blow. Black Canary could not be certain Fire would recover in time to get them back up, and it was taking all her skill to deflect her father from his target to go for a communication device.

"Dad, don't do this..." She so rarely spoke to him, that her use of the familial name actually made him miss a strike. She followed through the opening, but he still deflected her.

"Already signed the contract, baby." His use of the name made her angry, as he had predicted. They exchanged several more blows, a furious combination of strikes and counters before she found herself kicking a gun out of his hand.

"I'm not going to let you do this." She kept the way to the other room barred, her body fully in his way to any shot he might get if he got his other gun up.

"Get out of the way, girl." He was hard pressed to rein in his temper that she continued to defy him, that she would block his way when she knew she could not truly beat him. Her eyes narrowed; the switch to 'girl' away from 'daughter' or other names told her…yes, Fire was moving.

"No. You want to do this; you're going through me. Should be easy for you, after all... I'm not even your blood." She kept her reply low, not wanting Fire to know her secret. No one in the League knew just what relationship she bore to Deathstroke, just that she had one. Except the Bat, she supposed, but that was for another time.

"Black Canary," he growled in warning.

"Deathstroke," she said, her tone even as she flashed a throwing star out at him, forcing him to move to the left. He caught the kick that followed it, applying his strength and wrenching. She hissed, refusing to cry out in the agony he had just inflicted on her knee, as Fire's blast came from behind him.

He knew he had lost the upper hand; this mark would have to wait for another day and a long rifle shot as he rolled under the blast, barely avoiding the brunt of it, and made his exit.

Black Canary dove for him, the knee keeping her from doing more than raking her nails over his armor in frustration. Retaliation for the injury would have to wait, for now.

`~`~`~`~`

Joey was only missing three days when Dinah was harping at her mother. The younger woman was not going to let anything happen to her little brother, not after failing Grant.

Addie arrived in New York personally, with teams of people, her best. Not long behind them, Slade was also in the area, with his network on tap, and Wintergreen to help. As Titans started to go missing, it was a small thing to tag each one in New York and follow up, keeping them under watch until one was taken…and immediately pursued. It took two attempts to tail a Titan abduction, but soon a combined force of Titans, Addie Kane, Deathstroke, and Black Canary were moving on the Wildebeest Society.

In the chaos of the fight, it somehow came down to the Canary against the leader, to her revealing who was under the armor. In that moment of recognition, Canary was thankful for her mask, for the protective lenses she had switched to after the Bat had given her a maker for them.

"Joseph!" Addie shouted, pulling the man's eyes her way.

"Yes, mother?" he asked, his voice shocking everyone else who knew him.

Everyone but his sister, who had known in the instant she saw his eyes that all was not as it seemed.

There would be no more answers right then, though, as she launched her entire body into a powerful uppercut, catching Joey just right and sending him sprawling to the floor. It was Deathstroke who moved in to secure his son, getting a vicious look from Black Canary.

`~`~`~`~`

Joey looked at his sister with warm eyes as she came to sit beside him in his hospital room.

{"The Martian Manhunter and Dr. Fate said I am free, but I remember nothing from after I helped Raven."}

{"It's okay, brother."}

{"Saw that Dad went home with mother."}

Black Canary gave a small shrug to that, looking away. Joey reached up and turned it back.

{"I don't hate him. Mother is working on listening to him. Why won't you open back to him? You loved him more than anything."}

{"Never more than you, or Grant,"} she signed back. {"Fathers are not supposed to bring pain to their family."}

{"Everyone makes mistakes,"} he replied firmly.

{"Not everyone forgives them."}

`~`~`~`~`


End file.
